Evaluation question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Pre-production

The Internet was a very effective resource for researching for my production tasks. The video sharing website YouTube provided access to teaser trailers, film clips and promotional videos. This is due to the development of Web 2.0 in which the boundaries between audiences and producers have been blurred. Websites such as Youtube and blogger is encouraging the merge between audience and producer providing an easy and accessible way for the people to upload footage. Youtube allowed me to view a wide range of horror trailers and study their conventions. The official film websites also helped with researching the promotional strategies of a cult horror film. I would initially distribute my teaser trailer on a video sharing website to create a viral buzz before; launching it's own official

website. This would be an effective way to build an audience.

Production

The main media technology I used was a Sony HDV digital camera in the construction of my product. A problem I had was creating the appearance of being night time inside a brightly lit school building

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Therefore I filmed some shots using a hybrid digital SONY Cyber shot DSC-H9 on a night time setting. It worked very well in creating disturbing and scary closes up of the characters. I did not use a tri-pod as I wanted to create a shaky effect to indicate that the production was hand-held. This enforced the narrative that the characters were complete alone, suggesting that the characters were operating the camera. I used a Radio Microphone to produce the interview scenes it was much more effective then using the mic on the camera as it was louder and clear. However as the microphone was quite powerful it picked up all the surrounding background noise such as sirens, cars and people talking. This effected my editing as because of the noise as well as my actor was speaking to fast it makes it hard to cut the audio as there were no breaks.

Post Production

I used imovie to edit my footage things i did:

Extracted audio

As I wanted to create a documentary style horror I shot an interview with the lead character (Sarah) speaking about what they were planning to do that evening.

Link to Sarah's script:http://nsurridgeadvanced.blogspot.com/2009/12/edited-sarahs-script.html

I planned to space out the interview throughout the teaser trailer but found by extracting the audio from the clip I could create a voice over across other shots which reflected the conventions of a Teaser Trailer. It also gives the trailer more depth and makes it more exciting as I can cut down the shots of her speaking which were not particularly interesting.

Splitting clips. Being able to split clips is a very effective piece of technology and important for editing. It is very effective as it allows the producer to cut down long clips and take out unused parts. This part of the imovie software is easy to use, software such as imovie helps turn consumers into producers and the development of the web 2.0. Access to easy to use software means ordinary people can make productions upload them to the Internet for all to see. However Teaser Trailers usually have very quick cuts and imovie will not allow you to cut down a cut to short or you could not add transitions and effects to it. Therefore it is a limitation as it does not reflect the real media products.

Added titles

Although I feel imovie is good software it has some problems that prevent you from getting the desired effects. It has a limited font choice that did not reflect the typography I wanted. To solve this I decided to use the created title in photoshop which I used for my poster and magazine front cover and import it into imovie. I also added another title with the release date on stating "Term Begins September 2010". It reflects the school environment and also follows the British schools term schelling.

Video effects

The main video effects I used were speeding up and slowing down the the length of the shot. By making a close up of a frightening face coming towards the camera quicker. It increases the intensity of the shot making the person seem distorted and scary and the audience will react in a scared manner.

Garage band

Although it is very easy to find suitable sound effects with access to copyright free sites such as

http://www.freesound.org/eesound.org/. I found it hard to find any music that was appropriate and complemented my Teaser Trailer. A typical horror Teaser Trailer has a soundtrack that increases in tempo to increase the pace and excitement. I feel by using garage band

to create sound to go at the beginning of the teaser trailer made it more original and increased the tension. By using a new software it also developed my skills as a producer.

Reviewing my Final Production

Finally I used internet social networking site Youtube to get audiences responses and views on my Teaser Trailer. This is similar to how a real promotional campaign works as the product would be distributed on sites such as Youtube and Facebook. There viewers will leave comments about the film.

Overall I used media technologies through out the construction of my production pieces. The technology I used was a valuble contributer to the development of my production.